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Topic: Was I rude? (Read 3141 times)

I was house-sitting for a friend recently. He was due home around 5 on the last evening. My plan was to go home around 3 in the afternoon as I had some things I wanted to finish up at home. He asked me to stay a little longer so we could visit and catch up. No problem, I thought, and adjusted my plans. I made enough room for me to stick around until 7.6pm I get a text saying he's heading home soon. I call him to see what's up and I hear a mutual (local) friend of ours and his dogs in the background (it's a very distinctive sound, trust me). He says he's stuck in traffic but will be home soon, and can I wait? I told him I really must be going and left. I didn't call him on the lie or argue. I just said I had to go.Now he's furious with me and insists that it was so rude to leave before he got there. After all, I didn't *need* to leave until 7, right?

My feeling is that he knew I was waiting expressly for him and chose to go socialize elsewhere instead. What do you think?

Are you sure the mutual friend and dogs weren't sitting in the car while this guy was stuck in traffic?

But I'm inclined to believe you were right to leave. You thought he was coming at 5, and he texted at 6 to say he still wasn't there. That gives you less than an hour to "catch up." You actually had wanted to leave at 3. You're off the hook in my books.

At face value, the guy likes you so much that he really wanted to see you and talk to you. But as soon as he didn't get his way, he turned into an angry jerk. That's not friend behavior. I'm wondering if there was some reason besides catching up that he wanted you to be there. Maybe he wanted another favor.

One of my biggest pet peeves is people who don't respect my time. It's not acceptable to expect me to wait around for hours because someone doesn't have their act together. Lying about it makes it far worse.

If you want to maintain this friendship, I suggest you stand up to him and tell him how you feel about his behavior. An apology from him is in order.

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